Mental Health Insurance, Parity

1
Mental Health Insurance, Parity Public Policy

• Richard Scheffler, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor
  of Health Economics and Public Policy at UC
  Berkeley
• Mental Health Public Policy Symposium
• January 12, 2002

2

• 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics Awarded to
  Schizophrenic

3
Overview

• National and International Reports of Mental
  Health
• The Impact of Managed Care on Mental Health
  Services
• Mental Health Parity and Study of States
• Introduction of Panel Speakers

4
National and International Reports on Mental
Health

• Mental Health Needs
• The World Health Report 2001
• Surgeon Generals Report 1999
• David Mechanic 2001
• Mental Health Services
• Ronald Kessler et al 2001
• McAlphine and Mechanic 2000
• Surgeon Generals Report 2001

5
The Impact of Managed Care on Mental Health
Services

• What is managed mental health care?
• Growth of managed mental health care in 1990s
• Advantages and disadvantages to managed care in
  mental health

6
Mental Health Parity

• What is mental health parity?
• Mental Health Parity Act of 1996
• Recent failure of Mental Health Parity Bill in
  House of Representatives due to expected
  increases in costs

7
Mental Health Parity State Policy

• Conducted a study of each of the 50 states over
  eight years
• States with certain characteristics were more
  likely to pass parity legislation
• California AB 88

8
Conclusions

• Mental health parity is both a national and
  international issue that will not go away

9
Panel Speakers

• Richard Scheffler, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor
  of Health Economics and Public Policy, UC
  Berkeley
• Robert L. Okin, MD, Chief of Service of SFGH
  Department of Psychiatry, Professor of Clinical
  Psychiatry, and Vice Chair of the UCSF School of
  Medicines Department of Psychiatry
• Dr. Steven Mayberg, Director of California
  Department of Mental Health
• Ralph Catalano, Ph.D., Professor of Public
  Health, UC Berkeley
• Helen M. Thomson, Chair of California State
  Assembly Health Committee and the Select
  Committee on Mental Health